1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of treating waste gases containing halogen compounds. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method by which halogen-containing waste gases resulting from the dry etching step of the process of fabricating semiconductor devices are rendered harmless by removing the halogen compounds concomitant with said waste gases.
2. Prior Art
Many kinds of deleterious gases are employed in the process of fabricating semiconductor devices and they are potential pollutants of the environment. Halogen-containing gases that are present in the waste gases from the dry etching step are very toxic to the human body and it is strongly desired to establish a method by which those gases can be removed effectively.
While several methods for removing halogen-containing gases have so far been proposed, "dry systems" employ the following treating agents: (1) metal oxides; (2) activated carbon or a chemical supported on activated carbon; (3) an alkali agent; and (4) an oxidizing agent. Included within the class of (1) are oxides of various metals; included within the class of (2) are absorbents having chlorides or hydroxides of alkaline earth metals supported on activated carbon; known examples of alkali agents (3) include Ca(OH).sub.2, Mg(OH).sub.2, CaO and MgO; and a known example of oxidizers (4) is KMnO.sub.4.
The halogen-containing gases that are discharged from the dry etching step are classified as the following three types; (1) oxidizing gases (e.g. Cl.sub.2 and Br.sub.2); (2) acidic gases (e.g. HCl and SiF.sub.4); and (3) organic chlorine-containing gases (e.g. CCl.sub.4 and CHCl.sub.3). In practice, these gases are rarely discharged individually and a plurality of gases having different properties are discharged simultaneously.
In the prior art, there is no single treating agent that is effective in treating all of those halogen-containing gases. For example, metal oxides, alkali agents and oxidizing agents are not capable of removing all oxidizing and organic chlorine-containing gases whereas activated carbon is not capable of removing all acidic gases. In the absence of a single agent that is capable of treating all halogen-containing gases, it is necessary to select an appropriate agent for each waste gas to be treated but this is not only a difficult and cumbersome task; the throughput of the treatment is also small.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Nos. 121621/1987 and 289222/1987 disclose the use of soda lime as an alkali agent but this has the following problems.
If wafers are contaminated by Na, the electrical properties of semiconductors become very unstable to lower the yield of acceptable products. Under these circumstances, utmost care is taken in semiconductor shops to prevent wafer contamination by requiring that the operating personnel wash their hands and wear masks, gloves and other protectors. Equipment for removing deleterious gases is not an exception. If Na-based treating agents are used, a Na-containing waste gas may flow back in an accident to potentially contaminate wafers. Hence, the use of Na-based treating agents is avoided as much as possible in semiconductor shops.
Furthermore, when a strong alkali agent such as soda lime is used, it reacts with a halogen gas and the resulting heat will cause water to be formed in a large amount, whereupon the individual particles of the agent will cohere together. If this occurs, the resistance to gas flow will increase and, in an extreme case, clogging occurs and the gas will no longer flow. For these reasons, the use of soda lime as an alkali agent is not preferred.